Hanoi - Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung was confirmed for a new five-year term by the communist country's elected National Assembly on Wednesday. Dung, 57, received 97 per cent of the votes in the 500-seat parliament. He was the only candidate put forward.
Since he first took office last summer, Dung has presided over Vietnam's entry into the World Trade Organization, Hanoi's hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and a doubling of foreign investment to 10 billion dollars last year.
Vietnam's youngest post-war prime minister, Dung had been groomed for eight years as deputy to former premier Phan Van Khai after working his way up through the ranks of the Communist Party and the government, serving in both the internal security ministry and the national bank.
Dung is seen as a staunch supporter of Vietnam's 20-year-old economic reforms that have seen the country's average income double in the last decade, even though GDP is still a low 700 dollars per capita.
One of his first policy initiatives after taking office last year was a new campaign against the corruption that pervades most levels of Vietnamese society, directing national inspectors to set up telephone hotlines and an internet website where citizens can report officials' wrongdoings.
Dung has also made public outreaches to the citizenry including holding an online "chat" on the government's official website that reportedly drew more than 1 million page views.
While seen as an economic reformer, Dung is also a firm believer in one-party communist rule and has publically defended strict state control of the media.
During his term, the Vietnamese government also launched a harsh crackdown on political dissidents, jailing nearly a dozen people so far this year for such crimes as forming illegal opposition parties and "conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic."
The 12th National Assembly earlier this week reconfirmed President Nguyen Minh Triet, the head of state, to a new five-year term and is expected to take up a proposed Cabinet reshuffle cutting the number of ministries from 29 to 22 but adding more deputy prime ministers and promoting younger officials.
The parliament on Wednesday also confirmed former deputy minister of public security, Truong Hoa Binh, as chief justice of the People's Supreme Court.
Also Wednesday, Tran Quoc Vuong was confirmed as head of the People's Supreme Procuracy. Vuong was previously deputy chief prosecutor.
